Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis later moved to Lebanon and became a pivotal figure in the new poetry of the late 1960s. With the publication of
Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs
in 1963—widely viewed as a watershed moment in Arabic poetry—Adonis forged a new set of possibilities for Arabic poetry, writing in traditional meters but infusing them with modernist rhythms, styles, and conceptual complexities.
Translators
Adnan Haydar
(Universityof Arkansas in Fayetteville) and
Michael Beard
(Universityof North Dakota) co-edit a series of books,
Middle East Literature in Translation
, for Syracuse UniversityPress.